MIL-OSI Publisher – Page 296 – MIL Submissions Engine

March 31, 2026

Acreditación Magnet: una estrategia para mejorar los cuidados hospitalarios y retener talento enfermero

Source: The Conversation – (in Spanish) – By Cristina Oroviogoicoechea Ortega, Directora Área Desarrollo de la Práctica e Innovación en Enfermería. Clínica Universidad de Navarra, Universidad de Navarra

Europa vive una escasez histórica de personal de Enfermería. España, en particular, se sitúa entre los países con peor ratio de profesionales por habitante según la Organización para la Cooperación y el Desarrollo Económico (OCDE), con 6,3 enfermeras por cada 1 000 habitantes, frente la media europea de 9,2.

Esto tiene efectos claros: dificultades para cubrir vacantes, mayor rotación y entornos laborales cada vez más exigentes. Ante este escenario, muchos hospitales buscan cómo atraer y retener talento de forma sostenible.

Una de las respuestas más sólidas –y respaldada por evidencia internacional– es la Acreditación Magnet. Este marco reconoce a los hospitales capaces de crear entornos de práctica atractivos, seguros y sostenibles, donde las enfermeras pueden desarrollarse, innovar y liderar.

Actualmente, 657 hospitales en el mundo cuentan con esta acreditación, 633 en Estados Unidos (un 10,4 % del total) y 24 en otros países. De estos, 3 corresponden a Europa: el HUS Comprehensive Cancer Center, el el HUS Heart and Lung Center, ambos en Finlandia y, desde 2025, la sede de Pamplona de la Clínica Universidad de Navarra.

Un modelo nacido para atraer y retener talento

El modelo Magnet surgió en Estados Unidos en los años ochenta, en un momento de déficit de enfermeras similar al actual. La American Nurses Association estudió qué tenían en común los hospitales capaces de atraer y retener a sus profesionales incluso en épocas de escasez.

El hallazgo fue claro: el éxito no dependía de incentivos económicos, sino de culturas de trabajo que ofrecían autonomía profesional, desarrollo, liderazgo clínico y participación real en decisiones asistenciales.

Este modelo se apoya en cinco pilares:

Liderazgo transformacional. Se basa en líderes que marcan un rumbo claro, generan confianza y convierten los problemas cotidianos en oportunidades de mejora.
Empoderamiento estructural. Consiste en facilitar el crecimiento profesional, la participación y la capacidad de influencia. Incluye formación continuada, presencia en comités y reconocimiento del trabajo.
Práctica profesional ejemplar. Busca transformar el conocimiento en cuidados seguros y humanos. Combina experiencia clínica, trabajo en equipo y atención centrada en la persona.
Innovación y la generación de conocimiento. Promueve la mejora continua basada en la evidencia. Deja atrás el “siempre se ha hecho así” y convierte las ideas en cambios reales.
Resultados medibles. Permiten demostrar, con datos, que la calidad mejora y que la experiencia del paciente es mejor.

Cambiar la cultura, no solo los procesos

Implantar Magnet implica una transformación profunda de la organización. Supone años de trabajo: rediseñar estructuras, recopilar evidencias y revisar prácticas.

Nuestro propio recorrido comenzó en 2008. En ese momento visitamos hospitales norteamericanos donde la enfermería tenía una presencia clara y estaba completamente integrada en la estrategia del centro. Ese aprendizaje nos llevó a definir un modelo profesional de práctica, que se convirtió en la base de la creación de varias estructuras clave: la enfermera de práctica avanzada, oportunidades formales de desarrollo, espacios de participación y un liderazgo clínico vinculado directamente a la asistencia.

Qué cambia realmente en el día a día: de la intuición a los datos

Uno de los rasgos más valiosos del modelo Magnet es su insistencia en la medición continua. Esta cultura de medir ha generado mejoras visibles tanto en los resultados clínicos como en el entorno laboral, como hemos tenido oportunidad de registrar.

Resultados en pacientes

En nuestro hospital se han observado mejoras claras en indicadores clave de calidad, como disminución de úlceras por presión y las infecciones asociadas a dispositivos. También han mejorado los resultados de seguridad.

Muchas de estas mejoras proceden de proyectos liderados por enfermeras que detectan un problema, revisan la evidencia y diseñan una intervención. Después miden su impacto.

Un ejemplo es el trabajo del grupo de enfermeras de úlceras por presión, cuyo objetivo es prevenir estas lesiones en las unidades de hospitalización. Gracias a este trabajo, la prevalencia descendió de 6,10 en 2021 a 2,23 en 2025.

Resultados en profesionales

El proceso también ha tenido un efecto positivo en quienes cuidan. Las encuestas más recientes muestran una evolución clara y sostenida. La percepción del entorno de la práctica ha mejorado de 2,77 en 2022 a 2,90 en 2025, en una escala de 1 a 4.

También se observa un mayor compromiso con el cuidado directo. El porcentaje de enfermeras que desean continuar atendiendo a pacientes en su misma unidad ha aumentado del 82,7 % en 2022 al 94,3 % en 2025. De forma coherente con estos resultados, el índice de rotación de enfermeras en el hospital se mantiene por debajo del 3 %.

La evidencia internacional coincide con nuestra experiencia. Los hospitales Magnet muestran menor mortalidad, mejores indicadores de seguridad y mayor satisfacción de pacientes y profesionales. También presentan menor rotación enfermera y mayor retención, con impacto positivo en la estabilidad y la sostenibilidad económica.

Un cambio que transforma a toda la organización

Aunque es nuestra primera acreditación Magnet, el proceso ya está generando un cambio muy positivo en la enfermería y en todo el hospital:

Hemos fortalecido una práctica más rigurosa, basada en la evidencia y los resultados.
Hemos avanzado hacia una atención más integrada, más interdisciplinar y con mejor coordinación entre unidades.
Hemos desarrollado una mayor conciencia del impacto de nuestra contribución: medir, revisar y documentar prácticas ha hecho más visible el papel de la enfermería en la calidad global del hospital.
Este proceso también ha ampliado la participación en la toma de decisiones. Cada vez más enfermeras forman parte de comités, grupos de mejora y espacios estratégicos. Su voz tiene más presencia e influencia en las decisiones clave de la organización.

En definitiva, el modelo Magnet demuestra que fortalecer la profesión enfermera va más allá de algo simbólico. Es una estrategia basada en evidencia para mejorar la atención y hacer que los hospitales sean lugares más atractivos para trabajar.

En un momento de escasez, apostar por autonomía, desarrollo y participación es imprescindible para garantizar la seguridad del paciente y la sostenibilidad del sistema.

Las personas firmantes no son asalariadas, ni consultoras, ni poseen acciones, ni reciben financiación de ninguna compañía u organización que pueda obtener beneficio de este artículo, y han declarado carecer de vínculos relevantes más allá del cargo académico citado anteriormente.

– ref. Acreditación Magnet: una estrategia para mejorar los cuidados hospitalarios y retener talento enfermero – https://theconversation.com/acreditacion-magnet-una-estrategia-para-mejorar-los-cuidados-hospitalarios-y-retener-talento-enfermero-274641

March 31, 2026

Sobre el gen SRY y el sexo masculino

Source: The Conversation – (in Spanish) – By Lluís Montoliu, Investigador científico del CSIC, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología (CNB – CSIC)

Representación 3D de los cromosomas X e Y, que normalmente definen al sexo masculino en mamíferos. 3dmotus/Shutterstock

Reducir la ausencia de masculinidad a que alguien de negativo en un test PCR del gen SRY, como ha propuesto recientemente el Comité Olímpico Internacional (COI), es simplificar demasiado.

Para entenderlo bastan unas nociones de genética. Los mamíferos tenemos un par de cromosomas sexuales que son distintos en individuos del sexo femenino (generalmente XX) e individuos del sexo masculino (generalmente XY). Desde hace muchos años se sabía que la presencia del cromosoma Y determinaba la aparición de características sexuales masculinas, mientras que su ausencia se correspondía con la aparición de características sexuales femeninas. Pero no fue hasta 1990 cuando se descubrió que un gen dentro del cromosoma Y era suficiente y necesario para activar el programa de desarrollo sexual masculino.

Este gen recibió el nombre de SRY (del ingles sex-determination region Y). El descubrimiento fue producto de la colaboración entre los laboratorios de Peter Goodfellow y Robert Lovell-Badge, ambos ubicados en Londres. Poco después se comprobó, en ratones, que el gen Sry solamente se expresaba durante el desarrollo de los testículos, confirmando su papel en el establecimiento del sexo masculino.

El gen Sry –en minúsculas por ser de ratón– codifica una proteína del mismo nombre que promueve la expresión de otros genes, como por ejemplo el gen Sox9. La prueba definitiva de esto se obtuvo en 1991 con un experimento histórico con ratones transgénicos. Al añadir el gen Sry a embriones hembra –con cromosomas XX– se desarrollaron como machos, con caracteres sexuales típicos del sexo masculino, a pesar de tener dos cromosomas X. ¿Por qué? Solo por la adición del gen Sry.

Por si fuera poco, se comprobó que los ratones macho XY con el gen Sry mutado se desarrollan sexualmente como hembras, dado que les falta precisamente la función del gen Sry, a pesar de tener el resto del cromosoma Y. Por lo tanto, el gen Sry es determinante para que se desarrollen los caracteres sexuales masculinos.

En origen, todos somos embriones indiferenciados

Lo que ocurre en el desarrollo de los embriones de mamíferos es lo siguiente. Inicialmente todos comparten un programa indiferenciado que produce un esbozo de gónada. Si está presente el gen SRY, entonces se activa la diferenciación de esa gónada hacia testículos y aparecen los caracteres sexuales masculinos. En ausencia del gen SRY, la gónada continua su diferenciación hacia ovarios, y aparecen los caracteres sexuales femeninos. Dicho de otro modo, el programa embrionario de desarrollo por defecto “produce” ovarios, hembras; y solamente la presencia de una copia funcional del gen SRY (habitualmente ubicado en el cromosoma Y) permite activar la diferenciación hacia individuos masculinos, machos en animales.

La cosa se complica si tenemos en cuenta que puede haber individuos con cromosomas XY (cromosómicamente de sexo masculino) que carezcan o tengan alterado el gen SRY, por que está delecionado o mutado. En ese caso, se desarrollarán como individuos de sexo femenino siendo positivos al gen SRY (detectable por PCR). ¿Por qué? Porque el gen aunque está presente no es funcional.

Por otro lado, y aunque el gen SRY es el gran maestro que dispara una cascada de acontecimientos durante el desarrollo embrionario que conducen a que esa gónada inicial no diferenciada se convierta en un testículo, después de él actúan muchos otros genes. Esos genes necesitan activarse secuencialmente para que el desarrollo de los testículos y las características sexuales masculinas se complete con normalidad, como por ejemplo: SOX9, FGF9, TCF21, NTF3, CBLN4 y ER71. Si alguno de estos genes está mutado o alterado y no puede realizar su función con normalidad, de nada servirá tener un gen SRY funcional. El programa de desarrollo embrionario masculino no se podrá completar con normalidad y el individuo desarrollará características sexuales femeninas. Será positivo al gen SRY, tendrá la configuración cromosómica XY, pero carecerá de características sexuales masculinas y se comportará como un individuo de sexo femenino.

¿Masculino o femenino? No basta con detectar el gen SRY para saberlo

De todo lo anterior se deduce que un simple test de PCR que detecte la presencia del gen SRY no siempre garantizará que estemos ante una persona con caracteres sexuales masculinos. Puede dar positivo al test PCR al detectar la presencia del gen SRY, pero puede estar este mutado. O estar intacto y tener algún gen posterior alterado. En estos casos, la presencia del gen SRY no se asociaría a masculinidad.

Existen personas XY, de sexo cromosómico masculino, pero de características sexuales femeninas por tener mutado o alterado el gen SRY. Es lo que se denomina síndrome de Swyer.

También hay quienes teniendo el gen SRY intacto, sufren alteraciones en alguno de los genes posteriores. Por ejemplo, en el sindrome de insensibilidad a los andrógenos.

Estas personas XY pero de sexo femenino aparecen en la población con una frecuencia de aproximadamente 6.4 por cada 100 000 (una de cada 15 000) nacimientos de individuos de sexo femenino. Son disfunciones de bajísima prevalencia, condiciones genéticas raras, que encajan dentro de la definición de enfermedad rara –toda aquella enfermedad que afecte a menos de 1 de cada 2 000 personas nacidas-.

Otro gen maestro: WT1-KTS

En biología las cosas siempre son un poco más complicadas de lo que parece a simple vista. Y en las características sexuales hay una vuelta de tuerca más: un gen maestro para la producción de ovarios.

En una revisión del laboratorio de Marie-Christine Chaboissier, de la Université Côte d’Azur en Francia, concluyeron que el gen Wt1-KTS (que también existe en humanos) empuja a una gónada indeterminada a producir ovarios. Y que esta trayectoria también cuenta con numerosos genes adicionales que contribuyen a completar correctamente el desarrollo de los ovarios. Por lo tanto, también podrían existir individuos XX (es decir, cromosómicamente femeninos) que tengan alguno de los genes directores hacia ovarios mutados o alterados y permitan la activación del programa de desarrollo masculino, incluso en ausencia del gen Sry, dado que las dos vías se repelen e inactivan mutuamente.

Es más, estímulos externos como la mayor o menor proporción de hierro pueden influir en si un embrión de mamífero con el gen SRY se desarrolla como macho o como hembra.

Definitivamente, necesitamos mucho más que detectar un único gen para identificar el sexo, masculino o femenino, de un individuo.

Una versión inicial de este artículo fue publicada originalmente en el blog GenÉtica.

Los contenidos de esta publicación y las opiniones expresadas son exclusivamente las del autor y este documento no debe considerar que representa una posición oficial del CSIC ni compromete al CSIC en ninguna responsabilidad de cualquier tipo.

– ref. Sobre el gen SRY y el sexo masculino – https://theconversation.com/sobre-el-gen-sry-y-el-sexo-masculino-279538

March 31, 2026

Exploding head syndrome: the surprisingly common condition with a terrifying name

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Flavie Waters, Research Professor, School of Psychological Science, The University of Western Australia

Have you ever been drifting off to sleep when suddenly you hear what sounds like a gunshot, a door slamming, or an explosion inside your head? You jolt awake, heart pounding, sit upright in bed, but the room is silent.

Nothing has happened – but it felt very real.

This experience has a dramatic name: exploding head syndrome.

Despite the alarming name, it’s not dangerous, not painful, and not a sign something is wrong with the brain.

What is it?

Exploding head syndrome is a type of sleep disorder known as a parasomnia.

Parasomnias are unusual experiences that occur while sleeping or during transitions between sleep and wakefulness.

In exploding head syndrome, a person “hears” a sudden noise that seem to originate from deep inside the head. It’s a sensory perception generated by the brain rather than an external sound.

It typically occurs when drifting in or out of sleep, most commonly when a person is drowsy and about to fall asleep.

People commonly describe a sudden bang or loud metallic noise, gunshots, an explosion, crashing waves, buzzing electricity, a door slamming, or fireworks.

Exploding head syndrome can be intensely frightening. The loud noise may be accompanied by other sensations, including a brief stab of pain in the head (though it’s normally painless), flashes of light, out-of-body sensations, or the sensation of electricity coursing through the body.

The episode only lasts for a split second or a few seconds, and typically disappears completely once the person wakes up. Some people experience only a single episode, while others may have occasional episodes or brief clusters before the condition settles.

Because the experience is so sudden and unusual, many fear they’ve had a stroke or seizure, or that something catastrophic has happened. Others interpret it as a supernatural or ominous event.

The distress is caused not by pain, but by confusion and the body’s alarm response. The brain is partially awake, disoriented, and briefly activates the fight-or-flight system.

What causes it?

We don’t know the exact cause, but researchers have proposed several theories.

Because episodes occur during the transition into and out of sleep, they may be related to the same processes that produce what are known as hypnagogic hallucinations (vivid sensory experiences you can get while falling asleep).

As we fall asleep, different parts of the brain gradually switch off in a coordinated sequence.

In exploding head syndrome, that process may be linked to the shutting down of neural systems that inhibit auditory sensory processing. Your brain may end up interpreting this as a loud sound.

A related theory proposes a brief reduction in activity of the brainstem, particularly the reticular activating system (which is involved in regulating transitions between wakefulness and sleep).

Exploding head syndrome typically does not involve pain, and is therefore different from headaches and migraines.

The syndrome’s distinct features also makes epilepsy an unlikely explanation for most people.

How common is it?

Exploding head syndrome is more common than you may think.

It occurs in at least 10% of the population, and around 30% of people will experience it at least once in their lifetime.

It can occur at any age, often after the age of 50. It may be slightly more common in women, but we don’t know why.

Exploding head syndrome is more likely in people who have other sleep disturbances, such as insomnia or sleep paralysis.

It is also associated with:

being more stressed or emotionally tense than usual
anxiety
disrupted sleep patterns or poor sleep associated with daytime tiredness.

How is it treated?

Exploding head syndrome is harmless and not a sign of a serious brain problem. Episodes are usually brief, and may occur sporadically or in brief clusters before resolving on their own.

Once people are reassured the condition is not harmful and not a sign of brain damage or serious disease, episodes may become less frightening and frequent.

Medications are considered if episodes are frequent and very distressing but there haven’t been any large clinical trials that can guide treatment. Some sufferers have benefited from medications such as such as clomipramine but the evidence is limited, and more research is needed.

More commonly, treatment consists of reassurance and improving sleep habits. Some people report that addressing sleep problems such as insomnia, reducing tiredness and practising mindfulness and breathing techniques can help.

Generally harmless

In 1619 French philosopher René Descartes described having three dreams he regarded as a sign of divine revelation. In one, he heard a loud sound and saw a bright flash of light when he woke up. Some researchers have suggested what he was really experiencing was exploding head syndrome.

Despite its dramatic name, exploding head syndrome is harmless. For many people, the most effective intervention is understanding what it is – and knowing that it is not dangerous.

Although it is generally harmless, you should seek medical advice if episodes occur frequently, impact on your quality of life or are causing distress. Consult a doctor if they are painful, or associated with seizures, prolonged confusion, loss of consciousness or severe headache.

Flavie Waters does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Exploding head syndrome: the surprisingly common condition with a terrifying name – https://theconversation.com/exploding-head-syndrome-the-surprisingly-common-condition-with-a-terrifying-name-276273

March 31, 2026

NT rock art thousands of years old sheds new light on the mysterious Tasmanian tiger

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Paul S.C.Taçon, Chair in Rock Art Research and Director of the Place, Evolution and Rock Art Heritage Unit (PERAHU), Griffith University

Extinct animals have long fascinated people around the world – from dinosaurs, to giant kangaroos, to enormous flightless birds and almost unimaginable sea creatures.

But one of the most intriguing is the Tasmanian tiger, also known as the thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus).

These large dog-like animals with stripes on their backs once roamed throughout the Australian mainland. But when Europeans colonisers arrived, thylacines were only found in Tasmania, hence the name Tasmanian tiger.

alt — The earliest European drawing of a Tasmanian devil (top) and a Tasmanian tiger/thylacine (bottom) by George Prideaux Harris in 1808.
Wikimedia (Harris, G.P. 1808. Two new Didelphis species from Van Diemen’s Land. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London 9:174–178, Figure 1)

Our team of researchers has been documenting depictions of thylacines and other creatures at rock art sites in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, for decades.

Today, we publish new research on rock art in north-west Arnhem Land, including 14 rock paintings of thylacines and two of Tasmanian devils. A few of these paintings were previously known but not described, while others were identified by our team over the past three years.

Besides rock art, we also examined recent paintings on bark, paper and canvas – as well as information from Aboriginal elders. Our findings emphasise how thylacines are still important to Arnhem Land Aboriginal communities today.

Memories of a curious creature

Scientists studying fossil remains suggest the thylacine became extinct on the Australian mainland about 3,000 years ago. The Tasmanian devil disappeared from the continent about the same time. Dingoes, humans and ancient climate change have been implicated in their demise.

The last known thylacine in Tasmania died in Hobart’s Beaumaris Zoo in 1936, but reports of tiger sightings in rugged, remote parts continued. Recent research suggests the thylacine may have persisted in Tasmania until the 1980s.

In the mid-1800s, Aboriginal people in Tasmania told settlers many things about thylacines, including that they had a powerful swimming ability, much like domestic dogs.

In the 1900s, rock paintings and engravings of thylacines were recorded at various locations on mainland Australia, especially in the north of the continent. Arnhem Land is particularly rich in images of this curious creature.

While making a digital tracing of a rock painting, co-author Joey Nganjmirra identifies the subject as a thylacine.

Paintings in red, white and yellow

Our research focuses on rock paintings from Awunbarna (Mount Borradaile) and Injalak Hill (near Gunbalanya), east of the East Alligator River that separates Arnhem Land from Kakadu National Park.

Since 2018, we have been working with local Aboriginal community members to record hundreds of rock art sites in each location – some of which include thylacine paintings.

North-west Arnhem Land is well known for its rich galleries of rock paintings. These have been made over at least the past 15,000 years and feature unique styles and subject matter. Our new findings add to the region’s cultural and scientific importance.

The thylacine and devil paintings we examined were made in various Aboriginal art styles. They were usually made with red and sometimes yellow ochre in various styles. The oldest were made about 15,000 years ago, while others were made at various times since.

Two of the paintings were made using white pipe clay (kaolin) with red ochre.

One red and yellow thylacine painting had fine white cross-hatching added to its body within the past few hundred years.

The white pigment does not last long and easily flakes off. It is coarse and sits on the rock surface rather than penetrating and staining the way red ochre does. Most paintings with white are less than 1,000 years old.

This suggests some depictions of the two extinct species are more recent than we might have expected.

Rock art depictions of thylacines are much more numerous and widespread across mainland Australia than Tasmanian devils. Including our new findings, only 25 Tasmanian devil images have been documented – versus more than 160 thylacine depictions.

Thylacines may have survived much longer in pockets of northern Australia than Tasmanian devils, but were likely also more culturally important.

At three rock art sites we recorded pairs of thylacines. Some Aboriginal elders we worked with had stories about Ngalyod (Rainbow Serpents) having two thylacines as pets that would swim in rock pools where Ngalyod resided.

The tails of the thylacines are shown in a few different positions – and some thylacines are depicted with teeth.

These variations don’t seem to be linked to the style or age of the work. It’s more likely they relate to different ways paintings were used to pass on information about the animal.

Stories passed down through generations

Contemporary artists in western Arnhem Land have long been inspired by these paintings and related stories. Today, they continue to portray the thylacine across various forms of media. They also have a name for thylacines: Djankerrk.

The thylacine lives on in western Arnhem Land, not as a living animal or a ghost from the past, but as a creature that still has present day relevance. Our new research, conducted in collaboration with community members, contributes towards our understanding of what makes the thylacine so meaningful.

Paul S.C.Taçon receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Andrea Jalandoni receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Sally K. May receives funding from the Australian Research Council.

Joey Nganjmirra does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. NT rock art thousands of years old sheds new light on the mysterious Tasmanian tiger – https://theconversation.com/nt-rock-art-thousands-of-years-old-sheds-new-light-on-the-mysterious-tasmanian-tiger-278670

March 31, 2026

Strongest evidence yet that vaping likely causes cancer

Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Bernard Stewart, Professor, Paediatrics and Child Health, UNSW Sydney

As early as the 1880s, there was evidence that smoking tobacco damaged your lungs. But it took almost 100 years to definitively show that smoking causes lung cancer.

So, what about vapes?

Until now, most research that has looked at the cancer risk for people using vapes, also known as electronic or e-cigarettes, has mainly focused on their role as a gateway to smoking tobacco. This is because we know people who vape are more likely than non-smokers to take up smoking.

But whether they cause cancer by themselves has been unclear. There are still no long-term studies. But now a comprehensive review of the evidence I conducted with colleagues, published today, has found vaping likely causes oral and lung cancers.

What we looked at and what we found

Given there is no long-term research on whether vaping directly causes cancer, we had to look for effects on the body that we know are linked to cancer.

We identified all peer-reviewed research published between 2017 and mid-2025 that looked at health impacts of vapes considered indicative of potential cancer causation.

The aerosol that vapers inhale contains a complex range of chemicals, including nicotine and its byproducts, and vapourised metals. This aerosol demonstrates almost all of the ten “key characteristics of carcinogens” identified by the World Health Organization.

Blood and urine analyses from vapers confirmed they had absorbed chemicals from e-cigarette chemicals that we know are linked to cancer. These studies revealed nicotine and its breakdown products present in their bodies, including carcinogenic (cancer-causing) metals from the heating element and organic compounds from vapourising e-liquids.

There is no doubt vaping alters tissues in the mouth and lungs. We found evidence of mutations in DNA from the mouth and lungs in those who vaped, which is further evidence of carcinogen exposure.

There was also evidence of changes to cancer biomarkers in the lung and mouth tissue of vapers. Cancer biomarkers are changes in cell or molecular structure that precede a tumour developing. Some of these can be observed under a microscope, such as inflammation, while others such as oxidative stress are detected by molecular analysis.

We also examined experiments on mice which found the aerosols in vapes caused lung cancer, as well as cases reported by dentists who thought that oral cancers in certain individual patients (who didn’t smoke) were caused by them vaping.

Our review did also examine studies that had addressed the possibility vaping may cause cancer. However none of these covered the wide range of evidence we had assessed.

What this means

The evidence shows nicotine-based vapes are likely to cause oral and lung cancer. We just don’t yet know how many cases it will cause.

But in the evidence we looked at, there was rising concern, and a significant shift in the conclusions that had been drawn.

Between 2017 and 2019, researchers tended to say there wasn’t enough evidence to conclude that vapes cause cancer. This included papers that typically looked at cancer biomarkers and carcinogenic mechanisms.

By 2024 and 2025, almost without exception, authors were expressing concern. They noted that the idea vaping has a lower cancer risk than smoking could no longer be supported, given the evidence we now have.

Our study, which looks at cancer caused by vapes in their own right, marks a new approach to what we know about the link between cancer and vaping.

What we still don’t know

We still don’t have direct evidence that there are more cancer cases than expected among people who vape.

The fact it took 100 years to demonstrate that smoking causes cancer indicates it will take decades to make a similar case for vaping. And it will be challenging, because definitive proof will depend on a population of people who only vape, not people who smoke and vape.

So we need large and carefully planned studies, which will then allow us to monitor and detect cancer early, and precisely determine if it is caused by – or worsened by – vaping. Lives can be saved by these means, but only if this research is funded and started now.

Bernard Stewart does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Strongest evidence yet that vaping likely causes cancer – https://theconversation.com/strongest-evidence-yet-that-vaping-likely-causes-cancer-279550

March 30, 2026

How sea mines threaten global trade, and how navies detect them

Source: The Conversation – USA – By John Femiani, Associate Professor of Computer Science and Software Engineering, Miami University

Iranian forces have used small speedboats to lay mines in the Strait of Hormuz. Tasnim News Agency, CC BY

U.S. intelligence officials have assessed that Iranian forces have deployed a small number of mines in the Strait of Hormuz, a critical choke point for global shipping, according to reports. The move gives the Iranians a means, along with missiles and drones, of threatening ships.

The U.S. Navy recently decommissioned the minesweeping vessels that it had operating in the Persian Gulf region. However, it has other ships and aircraft for finding and destroying mines.

As a computer scientist who researches how to detect mines, I have been researching how artificial intelligence techniques, such as machine learning, can help navies detect modern sea mines. Here’s what I’ve learned about how the mines work and how they can be neutralized.

Types of mines

The mines most people picture, like those seen in films such as “Godzilla Minus One,” are floating spheres tethered to the seabed, with small protrusions called Hertz horns that trigger the mine when it makes contact with a ship. These are called moored mines.

In the film, characters use a small wooden boat to sweep mines without triggering them because the mines responded to a metal-hulled ship’s magnetic field. Detecting magnetic fields is characteristic of influence mines, which respond to a ship’s magnetic, acoustic or pressure signature, as opposed to simple contact mines that detonate when ships run into them.

Modern mines typically combine multiple sensing modes. Some are designed to detonate only after a certain number of ships have passed, allowing them to ignore smaller vessels or minesweeping attempts and target higher-value ships. Examples include the Iranian Maham 3, which uses both magnetic and acoustic sensors.

Not all mines float. Many modern mines instead sit on the seabed. These mines are most effective in shallow water, where ships pass closer to the seabed. Some bottom mines sit exposed on the seabed, while others are partially or completely buried in sediment. Examples include the Iranian Maham 7 and the Manta mine, a low-profile bottom mine used by Iraq during the 1991 Gulf War. These mines can be deployed by small vessels or laid from aircraft, making them relatively easy to place. They are triggered when they sense a ship passing overhead.

a conical object on a sandy seabed — This is an example of a ‘Manta’ naval mine.
U.S. Naval Forces Central Command/U.S. Fifth Fleet on Flikr, CC BY

Many modern mines are cylindrical or torpedo-shaped, allowing them to be deployed from aircraft or submarines and descend in a controlled way before settling on the seabed. More advanced designs include so-called rising mines, which sit on the seabed and launch upward toward a target once it is detected.

Mine countermeasures

A key advantage of naval mines is not just the damage they can cause, but also the time and resources required to find and clear them. This is because it’s challenging to do so over large areas quickly and reliably.

Even the possibility of mines can disrupt shipping and force extensive and costly clearance operations. This has been demonstrated in practice: During the 1980s, Iran and Iraq deployed relatively small numbers of mines against each other in the so-called Tanker War in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea. This caused significant disruption to shipping and forced costly, time-consuming clearance operations, even when direct damage was limited.

Some countermeasures use uncrewed systems to trigger mines by mimicking the magnetic or acoustic signatures of ships, or to disable them with explosive charges. However, more targeted approaches require identifying individual mines, which motivates the need for reliable detection.

Mine hunting

Mine detection is best understood as a wide-area sonar search, which produces many contacts – essentially, anything unusual in the sonar data. Automatic target recognition algorithms then triage these contacts and classify them as either minelike objects or benign. Divers or camera systems then provide higher-confidence identification or confirmation to validate the result. This is known as a detect-classify-identify pipeline.

To collect data, an uncrewed surface vehicle – deployed from a larger ship – can tow a sonar platform at a fixed height above the seabed. The platform, called a towfish, resembles a small missile and carries multiple sensors, including port and starboard side-scan sonar. The British Royal Navy is also preparing to send this type of towed sonar array to the Persian Gulf region, according to a report.

a small boat with a closed top and several electronic devices onboard — The U.S. Navy uses this uncrewed surface vessel, which tows an underwater sonar device, to search for mines.
U.S. Navy

an illustration showing an underwater scene with colored lines demarking areas — The U.S. Navy’s towed sonar array includes forward-looking sonar to detect moored mines (yellow region) and side-looking sonar to scan for mines sitting on the seabed (white region).
U.S. Navy

These sonar devices use sound rather than light to form images. Unlike a photograph, a sonar image is built from one-dimensional measurements of returned sound energy as a function of distance from the sensor. As the platform moves, these slices are assembled to form a continuous image of the seabed. The center of the image corresponds to the water column directly beneath the sonar device and appears dark. The seabed appears as if illuminated from the sensor, with objects characterized by a bright highlight facing the sonar and a shadow extending away from it.

At the detection stage, researchers have developed a range of techniques to detect minelike objects in sonar imagery. Early methods segmented sonar imagery into regions that show as highlights paired with acoustic shadows. Other statistical approaches model seabeds and identify anomalies that deviate from it. Template-like matched filters are used to identify objects with known geometric characteristics.

More advanced approaches incorporate machine learning, using carefully selected features derived from texture, intensity and shadow geometry to classify objects.

More recently, researchers have applied deep learning methods directly to sonar imagery and have often shown improved performance, particularly in complex environments. But their effectiveness depends on the availability of representative training data.

Unlike the data for training many other computer vision systems, high-resolution side-scanning sonar data is particularly expensive to collect and label in large enough amounts to successfully train deep learning mine detection systems.

Perhaps, when it becomes safe to do so, navies can clear mines from the Strait of Hormuz and add to the limited supply of this data.

John Femiani receives U.S. Navy SBIR-funded research support related to underwater mine detection.

– ref. How sea mines threaten global trade, and how navies detect them – https://theconversation.com/how-sea-mines-threaten-global-trade-and-how-navies-detect-them-279305

March 30, 2026

Ontario is closing its supervised consumption sites, calling them a failure. So what counts as ‘success?’

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Daniel Eisenkraft Klein, Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University

The Ontario government recently said it will cut provincial funding for seven supervised drug consumption sites in Toronto, Ottawa, Niagara, Peterborough and London, with 90 days given to wind down their operations.

In their place, the province is spending $378 million on 19 Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) hubs, which explicitly exclude supervised consumption and needle exchange services.

While Premier Doug Ford’s government’s framing of supervised consumption as a “failed experiment” is selective, it’s not baseless in the way that defenders of these sites sometimes imply.

By certain measures, the sites have not lived up to their potential: the program has not clearly reduced provincewide overdose deaths, and the communities that host them bear costs that defenders too often dismiss.

But “failure” requires a definition of success, and the government’s is not the only one that matters. HART hubs offer care for people on a recovery pathway, while supervised consumption sites exist for those who are not on that pathway yet or who have left it. Entirely replacing safe consumption sites with HART hubs doesn’t address the primary function these sites have served: keeping people who are not in treatment alive. By this measure, the sites are a clear success.

Success by whose measure?

Whether supervised consumption sites “succeed” depends entirely on what they’re expected to do. If we judge the sites against Health Canada’s stated goals — keeping people alive on site, connecting them to treatment, reducing infections and lessening strain on emergency services — the evidence is strong.

No one has ever died of an overdose inside a supervised consumption site in Canada. And sites across the country have reversed more than 50,000 overdoses since 2017.

In Ontario, where more than 2,200 people died from opioid toxicity in 2024 and fentanyl was involved in more than 83 per cent of those deaths, the sites function as a last line of defence for people at highest risk. Since 2021, about one in five opioid toxicity deaths in Ontario has occurred among people experiencing homelessness — the same population these sites primarily serve.

Beyond lives saved, safe consumption sites generate measurable returns the government’s own cost-benefit logic should recognize: Vancouver’s Insite refers thousands of clients to health and social care monthly and a Calgary cost analysis found each overdose managed at a supervised consumption site saved approximately $1,600 in avoided ambulance and emergency department costs. Those resource savings are especially important amid severe emergency room overcrowding in Ontario.

Where the sites fall short

But the Ontario government’s claim that these programs lack population-level impact is not just rhetoric: the two largest provincial-level studies — covering British Columbia and Ontario — found no statistically significant effect on opioid mortality, emergency department visits or hospitalizations.

A systematic review also found that the studies carried high risk of bias because they didn’t account for confounding factors like housing, treatment access and drug supply composition.

A neighbourhood-level study of Toronto found a two-thirds reduction in overdose mortality within 500 metres of sites, but that finding did not replicate at larger geographic scales.

One possible explanation for this lack of effect is coverage: Ontario’s supervised consumption sites provided roughly 150 spaces accommodating up to 9,000 episodes per day, while the province may have 300,000 to 400,000 at-risk opioid users. Expecting a handful of supervised consumption sites to reduce provincewide overdose mortality is akin to stationing a single fire truck in a forest and asking why the wildfire kept burning.

Community concerns, which the Ford government often cites in arguing that safe consumption sites have failed, are similarly grounded in real experiences.

A study published in JAMA Network Open examining Toronto’s safe consumption sites found no long-term rise in overall crime, as well as fewer assaults and robberies. But the same study documented initial increases in break-and-enters near a number of sites.

Nearby residents have also described visible disorder, open drug use and discarded equipment.

Dismissing these experiences as NIMBYism or overblown only undermines the case for safe consumption sites. Advocates need to take these concerns seriously if they want the sites to survive politically.

What closures get wrong

Despite this mixed evidence, there’s little to suggest that Ontario’s plan to shift patients to the HART hubs will lead to success.

The Ontario government has cited a Canadian Centre of Recovery Excellence study that found no increase in mortality after the closure of one overdose prevention site in Red Deer, Alta.

But that study’s authors have acknowledged it was inconclusive because it covered only a six-month period. And a single study of a single site closure does not constitute an evidence base for dismantling an entire network of services across a province where opioid deaths remain catastrophically high.

Supervised consumption sites are not beyond criticism: they can be better designed, better integrated and more responsive to the communities that host them. But improving them requires better policy, not selective evidence and site closures.

The $378 million committed to HART hubs could expand addiction treatment without eliminating the services that keep people alive. Adding treatment capacity does not require removing the safety net beneath it.

Daniel Eisenkraft Klein does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Ontario is closing its supervised consumption sites, calling them a failure. So what counts as ‘success?’ – https://theconversation.com/ontario-is-closing-its-supervised-consumption-sites-calling-them-a-failure-so-what-counts-as-success-279288

March 30, 2026

Decades of hostility between Iran and the US were preceded by a little-remembered century-long friendship

Source: The Conversation – USA – By Daniel Thomas Potts, Professor of Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology and History, New York University

The ouster of Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh marked a turning point in U.S.-Iran relations. AP Photo

The British- and American-backed plot to overthrow Iran’s prime minister in 1953 laid the groundwork for the 1979 Iran hostage crisis and decades of hostility with the U.S. that have now culminated in a war launched on Iran by the U.S. and Israel.

Many Americans only know the anger and tension with Iran that has grown from those roots set down during the middle of the last century. But as an archaeologist who has spent over 50 years specializing in Iran, and from my research on Iranian history in the context of changes undergone by Iran’s nomadic population through time, I believe it is worth recalling the time when the two countries had a distinctly different relationship.

In the 1800s, American missionaries journeyed to what was then called Persia.

The missionaries helped build important institutions – schools, colleges, hospitals and medical schools – in Persia, many of which still exist.

Dr. Joseph Plumb Cochran, an American physician fluent in Persian, Turkish, Kurdish and Assyrian, founded a hospital in Urmia in 1879, as well as Iran’s first medical school. When Cochran died at Urmia in northwestern Iran in 1905, over 10,000 people attended his funeral.

This image clashes with most American stereotypes of Iran and its people, and is at odds with decades of anti-Iranian sentiment emanating from Washington.

Iran and the United States, in fact, have a deep history of mutual respect and friendship.

From 1834, when the first Protestant American mission was established in Urmia, until 1953, when the CIA’s involvement in Iran’s internal affairs set the United States on the road to conflict with Tehran, Americans were the good guys.

Joseph Plumb Cochran in his medical college at Urmia.
Wikipedia

Imperial bad guys

For years, Americans have seen images of Iranians shouting “Death to America.” President Donald Trump returned the sentiment during his first term, vowing to bring Iran death and destruction. And on Feb. 28, 2026, after weeks of threats and military preparation, the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, killing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei; that war continues to this day.

But before all that happened, when Americans were the good guys, there were other countries who were instead manipulators and who exerted undue influence over Iran.

The bad guys, at whose hands Iran suffered most, were Russia and Great Britain. Those two nations – often at the invitation of Iran’s leaders – economically exploited Persia to further their own imperial ambitions, using sustained diplomatic, military and economic pressure.

After two ill-judged wars fought against Russia – the First (1804-1813) and Second Russo-Persian Wars (1826-1828) – Persia (the name Iran was officially adopted in 1935) lost large amounts of territory to the czar.

Much later, Russia found another means of exerting control over the Persian crown, loaning millions of rubles to its rulers, like Mozaffar ed-Din Shah, who reigned from 1896-1902 and needed capital to fund his lavish lifestyle.

With the exception of the Anglo-Persian War (1856-1857), Persian relations with Great Britain were less openly hostile. But what they lacked in martial vigor was more than compensated for by economic exploitation.

Toward the end of the 19th century, the shah granted exclusive concessions to the British for everything from telegraph lines to tobacco. Rights to Iran’s oil were given to the Anglo-Persian (later Anglo-Iranian) Oil Company.

So assured were Britain and Russia in their control of Persia that, in 1907, they signed the infamous Anglo-Russian Convention. That agreement divided the country – unbeknownst to its Parliament, let alone its inhabitants – into Russian, British and “neutral” spheres of influence. After it became public it provoked the outrage of ordinary Persians and the international community at large.

Cartoon from 1907 satirizing Russia and England dividing up Persia.
Punch/Pushkin House

America the good

Iran’s relations with the United States were completely different.

The 19th- and early 20th-century history of British and Russian imperial ambitions and involvement in Iran put Iran in a dependent, exploited position at the hands of the governments of these two countries.

But the presence in Iran of American missionaries and, later, invited government technocrats, was of an entirely different quality. These were Americans offering aid, with no expectation of advantage to be gained officially for the United States government.

American Presbyterian missionary efforts in Iran began in 1834 and focused on education, with 117 schools established around Urmia by 1895. Efforts were also directed at medical and social welfare. These were nongovernmental missions. The U.S. government was conspicuous by its absence in Iran and Iranian affairs.

By the late 19th century, the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions had opened new stations in cities across northern Iran, from Tehran to Mashhad. American diplomatic relations with Persia were established in 1883. A decade later the American Presbyterian Hospital was founded in Tehran by John G. Wishard.

After the First World War, Presbyterian schools for both boys and girls proliferated, the most famous of which were the American College of Tehran for boys, established in 1925, and Iran Bethel School for girls.

In 1910, the Persian Parliament, aware that the country’s finances were in disarray, invited the U.S. to identify a “disinterested American expert as treasurer-general to reorganize and conduct collection and disbursement of revenue.”

Despite Russian attempts to block the initiative, W. Morgan Shuster, a distinguished career civil servant, was appointed by Persia in February 1911. He arrived in Tehran in May, bringing with him four other Americans.

The mission was a failure, lasting only eight months, and, unsurprisingly, was adroitly sabotaged by the combined efforts of British and Russian diplomats in Tehran.

American William Morgan Shuster, treasurer-general of Persia.
Wikipedia

The country’s financial situation after the First World War was still precarious. With none of the colonialist baggage associated with the two European superpowers, America was turned to, almost as a last resort, to fix what ailed Iran. Riza Shah, father of the last shah, appointed an American, Arthur C. Millspaugh, as the administrator-general of the finances of Persia.

When Millspaugh arrived in Tehran in 1922, a newspaper editorial addressed him with these words: “You are the last doctor called to the death-bed of a sick person. If you fail, the patient will die. If you succeed, the patient will live.”

Despite his often testy relations with foreigners, Riza Shah acknowledged Millspaugh’s American Financial Mission was “the last hope of Persia.” The fact that the mission was far from an unqualified success does not detract from its importance. Nor did it diminish America’s image as an honest broker in Iranian eyes, in contrast to that of Russia and Great Britain.

Of course, not every Iranian-American interaction during this period was positive. Robert Imbrie, the American consul in Tehran, was brutally murdered in 1924, allegedly because a fanatical religious leader accused him of being a Baha’i and poisoning a well.

Riza Shah used the episode to crack down on dissidents and impose strict controls on public gatherings.

Students at the American Memorial School, Tabriz, 1923.
shahrefarang.com

America the bad

America’s benign image in Iran was forever shattered in 1953 when the CIA, working with Great Britain, engineered a coup against Mohammad Mossadegh, the democratically elected prime minister who had nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.

Even though the overthrow of Mossadegh damaged Iranian trust in America, the years just prior to Iranian revolution in 1979 saw the number of Iranian students in the United States steadily rise.

Over one-third of the approximately 100,000 Iranian students pursuing university degrees abroad in 1977 were in the U.S. By the time of the Islamic revolution two years later, that number had climbed to 51,310, making Iran by far the biggest single source of foreign students in America, with 17% of the total foreign student population. The next-largest contributor of foreign students, Nigeria, accounted for only 6%.

“Iranian students have been here for nearly a century … there are deep and abiding connections that reveal themselves when you look at the historical record,” researcher Steven Ditto, who wrote a report on Iranian students in the U.S., told The Washington Post in 2017.

The legacy of American goodwill, personal friendship and doing the right thing by Iran has not been completely lost, although the war now underway may make it seem as though America’s good relationship with Iran has been lost irretrievably.

Deep friendships dating back well over a century can withstand a great deal. A reservoir of goodwill and affection may lie dormant while political storms rage. Iran and America were good friends in the past, and for good reason. I believe that Americans would do well to remember that.

This is an updated version of an article originally published on Aug. 19, 2020.

Daniel Thomas Potts does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Decades of hostility between Iran and the US were preceded by a little-remembered century-long friendship – https://theconversation.com/decades-of-hostility-between-iran-and-the-us-were-preceded-by-a-little-remembered-century-long-friendship-279636

March 30, 2026

Ontario is closing its supervised consumption sites, calling them a failure. But were they successful? Yes and no

Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Daniel Eisenkraft Klein, Postdoctoral Fellow, Harvard University

In their place, the province is spending $378 million on 19 Homelessness and Addiction Recovery Treatment (HART) hubs, which explicitly exclude supervised consumption and needle exchange services.

While Premier Doug Ford’s government’s framing of supervised consumption as a “failed experiment” is selective, it’s not baseless in the way that defenders of these sites sometimes imply.

Success by whose measure?

No one has ever died of an overdose inside a supervised consumption site in Canada. And sites across the country have reversed more than 50,000 overdoses since 2017.

Where the sites fall short

A systematic review also found that the studies carried high risk of bias because they didn’t account for confounding factors like housing, treatment access and drug supply composition.

A neighbourhood-level study of Toronto found a two-thirds reduction in overdose mortality within 500 metres of sites, but that finding did not replicate at larger geographic scales.

Community concerns, which the Ford government often cites in arguing that safe consumption sites have failed, are similarly grounded in real experiences.

Nearby residents have also described visible disorder, open drug use and discarded equipment.

What closures get wrong

Despite this mixed evidence, there’s little to suggest that Ontario’s plan to shift patients to the HART hubs will lead to success.

The Ontario government has cited a Canadian Centre of Recovery Excellence study that found no increase in mortality after the closure of one overdose prevention site in Red Deer, Alta.

– ref. Ontario is closing its supervised consumption sites, calling them a failure. But were they successful? Yes and no – https://theconversation.com/ontario-is-closing-its-supervised-consumption-sites-calling-them-a-failure-but-were-they-successful-yes-and-no-279288

March 30, 2026

¿Es su bebé demasiado dependiente de las pantallas? Señales de alerta antes de los seis años

Source: The Conversation – (in Spanish) – By María Lidia Platas Ferreiro, profesora ayudante doctora departamento de Pedagogía y Didáctica, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela

No es raro ver a un bebé o un niño pequeño en el metro o en el autobús observando atentamente una pantalla de un móvil o una tableta: los vídeos infantiles, con sus colores brillantes, sus canciones pegadizas y sus patrones repetitivos son una frecuente fuente de distracción. Ante esta realidad, surge una pregunta que preocupa a familias, docentes y profesionales de la salud: ¿el uso de pantallas en la primera infancia puede generar una dependencia o incluso adicción?

Durante los primeros años de vida, el cerebro infantil atraviesa una etapa de extraordinaria plasticidad: se forman millones de conexiones neuronales (sinapsis) a partir de cada experiencia, lo que nos lleva a una primera idea clave: el cerebro del bebé está constantemente absorbiendo información del entorno, organizando patrones y construyendo las bases del desarrollo emocional, cognitivo y social. Toda experiencia es, en ese sentido, una experiencia “de aprendizaje”.

Leer más:
Uno de cada tres niños usa el móvil en los restaurantes de comida rápida: ¿qué consecuencias tiene?

Los contenidos audiovisuales, incluso aquellos específicamente diseñados para bebés o niños pequeños, no proporcionan estímulos neutros o casuales, sino experiencias rápidas, intensas y altamente gratificantes, con colores brillantes, sonidos llamativos, cambios constantes y recompensas inmediatas, diseñadas intencionalmente para captar y mantener la atención el mayor tiempo posible.

Estos estímulos activan los circuitos cerebrales relacionados con el placer y la gratificación rápida, reforzando la búsqueda de ese tipo de experiencias, también en los más pequeños.

Adicción no, dependencia sí

¿Podemos hablar entonces de “adicción” en niños de 0 a 3, o de 3 a 6 años? Desde un punto de vista clínico, el término debe utilizarse con cautela. La adicción implica pérdida de control, prioridad absoluta de la conducta sobre otras actividades y persistencia pese a consecuencias negativas.

En bebés y niños pequeños, la autorregulación depende prácticamente por completo de los adultos. No son los menores quienes deciden cuánto tiempo pasan frente a una pantalla, por tanto, no es adecuado hablar de adicción en sentido estricto.

Lo que sí pueden observarse son patrones de uso problemático o dependencia conductual: irritabilidad intensa cuando se retira el dispositivo móvil, demanda constante de la pantalla, dificultad para entretenerse sin ella o pérdida de interés por otras actividades.

Leer más:
Efectos de las pantallas en niños pequeños: la importancia de lo que ven y cómo lo ven

Estas señales no indican un trastorno, pero sí invitan a revisar los hábitos familiares: las recomendaciones pediátricas coinciden en evitar el uso de pantallas antes de los dos años y, a partir de esa edad, limitarlo a periodos muy breves y siempre supervisados. No se trata solo de cuánto tiempo, sino de cómo y para qué se utilizan.

Consecuencias del mal uso

Cuando nos excedemos, o cuando recurrimos demasiado rápidamente a este recurso de “distracción”, podemos estar limitando el desarrollo de la atención sostenida, además de alterar patrones de sueño (especialmente cuando hay exposición antes de dormir), reduciendo la tolerancia a la frustración.

Por si esto fuera poco, todo el tiempo que un niño pasa frente a una pantalla es tiempo que no está dedicando al juego activo y social. El contacto humano directo es primordial en edades tempranas, ya que el lenguaje, la empatía y la regulación emocional se construyen principalmente a través de la interacción con adultos significativos.

Leer más:
Las guías de la OMS para una infancia saludable no se cumplen ni en España ni en Europa

Límites y acompañamiento

Más que una prohibición absoluta, debemos “mediar” como adultos responsables establecer límites claros y acompañar activamente la experiencia.

Si el menor utiliza un dispositivo, lo ideal es que el adulto esté presente, comente lo que aparece en la pantalla y conecte el contenido con la vida real. De este modo, la pantalla se convierte en una actividad compartida y no en una experiencia aislada.

Todo esto debe estar siempre combinado con alternativas atractivas: juego libre, lectura de cuentos, música, movimiento y exploración del entorno. Además, los adultos deben dar ejemplo, porque los niños aprenden observando. Revisar nuestros propios hábitos de uso del móvil, especialmente delante de los más pequeños, es una de las formas más eficaces de prevención.

Evitar la dependencia temprana

Aunque los niños de 0 a 6 años no pueden sufrir “adicción” a las pantallas en términos clínicos, sí es posible que se desarrollen dinámicas de dependencia cuando la pantalla ocupa un lugar central en su vida.

La buena noticia es que, con información, coherencia y acompañamiento, la tecnología puede ocupar un lugar equilibrado, sin sustituir aquello que ningún dispositivo puede ofrecer: vínculo, juego y presencia adulta.

María Lidia Platas Ferreiro no recibe salario, ni ejerce labores de consultoría, ni posee acciones, ni recibe financiación de ninguna compañía u organización que pueda obtener beneficio de este artículo, y ha declarado carecer de vínculos relevantes más allá del cargo académico citado.

– ref. ¿Es su bebé demasiado dependiente de las pantallas? Señales de alerta antes de los seis años – https://theconversation.com/es-su-bebe-demasiado-dependiente-de-las-pantallas-senales-de-alerta-antes-de-los-seis-anos-276449